Classroom Hacks

Summer Vacation! (finally!)

Boy oh boy do I get jealous of teachers with a whole summer laid out in front of them.  That's short lived however, as I do get three months off during the school year.  On my new schedule (I'm moving schools and grades, from 3rd to Kindergarten!) I'll have August, November and April off.  Pretty cool!

I realize fewer teachers will be in a mood to read a teaching blog so I'm taking some time off. Please continue to send in ideas and inspiration, I'll keep them for late August.

So go have some fun, dig in the garden or take a trip or catch up on your shows.  Have a lovely summer and we'll see you all soon!

Mrs. T.

Teacher and parent appreciation

We're year round in our little corner of the educational world, so this may be too late for some. 

I was searching for personalized pens to give as gifts to the parents who have helped out this year.  I came across this wonderful blog!

http://sunshine4teachers.blogspot.com/

If you know of other blogs by and for teachers that are similar, please let me know!  It gets lonely out here in teacher blogger land.  ;)

Adobe Education update:  Since I 'tweeted' about it and blogged about their incredibly poor customer service  I got bumped up to an unhappy customer 'list', which was sent to the Education then upper Customer Service level.  Within an hour they emailed me three times and called me twice.  Someone from Canada (?) said they were going to ship it to me for free.  This was on Thursday.  I'm very thankful of course.  This is a good way to handle a customer complaint.

My core concern remains however.  I can be obnoxious if I need to be, and get attention to fix my problem.  I'm wondering about all those teachers that do not raise these issues with Adobe.  Teacher don't have a lot of time to invest in something like this and will just forget the order and never get it and never make a point with Adobe.

I'd love to be able to recommend them but as of yet they have not replied as to how they will change anything, or what went wrong with my order.  So I'm sort of at a loss.

I suggested to them that they should hire actual teachers, not just reps, to help with the educational market but got no response from the customer service or the Education department.  So, I guess at this point I'm just going to say 'buyer beware'.  You might get the product if you make noise, you might not.

I'll let you know when and if it arrives.

Hogwarts Summer Correspondence School for Summer

If your students have enjoyed reading, listening to Harry Potter, or seeing the films, this is a fun way to extend  learning at home, for homeschooling or summer school.  It's free and you can pick and choose what you'd like to include or leave out.  I know many children who have loved doing this over long summers. 

Hogwarts Summer Correspondence School
Year 1 lessons and links. This classroom is a complete summer course including plans, letters, and links for members of Hogwarts SCS who are just starting and would like a pre-packaged program. It is provided free to any members of HSCS.

The activities contained within the pages of these files are from many sources and people. When at all possible the original source for an activity has been cited; however activities get modified from other sources, as to format, content, and audience. No infringement of copyrights is meant and all materials contained herein are for educational purposes. The editors of these files and texts grant permission to photocopy or print them for educational purposes as defined by the corresponding copyright laws but spoof-texts and files are not to be sold or re-sold in any fashion or format.

 

The files and spoof-texts are in no way associated with J.K. Rowling, Warner Bros., or any other official entity. This is an unofficial, not for profit site, and is in no way connected with J.K. Rowling, Scholastic Books or Bloomsbury Publishing or Warner Bros. It is not endorsed by any of the aforementioned parties. Rights to characters and their images is neither claimed nor implied.

Discounts for Educators

Some of the 'freebies' for teachers end up being sort of junky, misleading (like Adobe), or pops you into a database you might not want to be a part of.  Here are some freebies that you can actually use to save money:

Ann Taylor

offers exclusive deals and discounts just for teachers. Sign up to receive 20% off right now!  Sorry boys, I don't see much for you there.

Barnes and Noble offers a regular 20% discount off the list price of hardbacks and 15% off soft cover books with their Educator Discount Card. For more information, click the following:

Barnes & Noble Benefits for Educators and the Community

Educator Discount Card application

Borders

Kinko's

FedEx Kinko’s Office and Print Center is pleased to offer teachers, professors, faculty and staff members 15% off on most products and services at participating FedEx Kinko’s nationwide. To receive your discount, simply present your discount card when making a purchase in-store or at fedexkinkos.com and the discount will automatically be applied.

JoAnn Fabric and Craft Stores

Offers a Teacher Discount Card good for 15% off each total purchase all year long. Click here to register for your card! This discount does NOT limit you to items for school use.

SmileMakers

Offers a Teacher Discount Card good for 15% off each total purchase all year long. Enter promo code “NEAMB” on step 2 of checkout.

Office Depot Star Teacher Program

Teachers who participate in Office Depot's Star Teacher Program receive everyday discounts on qualifying in-store purchases and are included in a variety of special events and promotions during the year. Sign up for the Star Teacher Program by visiting your local Office Depot store. Click here to find the retail store closest to you!

Dell Computers

At Dell you can customize basic systems and receive 2-4% off of retail price. You can also buy software and peripherals for your Dell system. You will be required to give the name of your school and the school's identification number.

Apple Computers and Products

At Apple they offer all products and computers to educators and students.  They give up to a 20% discount on all products, and quite often free shipping.  I have also found great deals on iPods etc. in their refurbished section of the Educator website.

Cheap travel

First check these discounts against Kayak, Travelocity, Priceline
I'm told that you can find cheap airfare just a click away at StudentUniverse if you are a faculty member. As a teacher or member of staff at any educational institution, you are eligible for deep discounts on travel. STA Travel offers discounts for teachers as well.

Other Tips:

If you come across additional discounts that are not restricted by residence or union membership, please let me know, so I can add them here.

Remember - wherever you shop, ask if they have an educator discount. If one is not available, discuss the benefits of giving one.   Feel free to leave this URL (www.classroomhacks.com)

Check with your local union rep.  In my district I've been lucky enough to get discounts to local attractions for myself an my family.

If you are a member of NEA, they also have a discount program if you visit them here.  These discounts include Target, Ann Taylor, Brooks Brothers, Costco,  and more.

If you are located in Canada, there is a website with tons for you here.

Company to steer clear of -- Adobe

There are so many wonderful companies that help teachers and educators out with discounts.  I will highlight some of these below and more later this week

Adobe in particular seems to want to tell teachers and educators that we are important.  Their website is very slick and pretty.  They seem very eager to help educators.  However, with my recent experience I have to say that nothing could be further from the truth.

I thought it was a great deal to get Adobe Acrobat for my classroom.  I was planning on creating an online 'yearbook' filled with class pictures, writings, etc.  I checked out the pricing on Acrobat.  Mostly over a teacher's abilty to purchase.  Then I was pleasantly suprised to see on their "Educator's Program" page they promore Acorbat Pro for just 159.00 USD.  Well don't be fooled.  You may not get your product at all.

I ordered on May 3 2009.  I used my district's e-mail address.  I gave them the name of my school, district and sent a scanned copy of my District ID Card as requested. I used PayPal to pay, thinking that would expedite shipping as I have funds available. Then I waited.  I called to see what was happening and was told it was in progress...

I waited...

I called three times to find out what was going on with my order.  Each time I spoke with a very nice but very unhelpful staff member from India.  When I said they could easily call my HR department to confrim my status as a teacher, they said that they don't do that.  They said that the 'Education Department' is located in the US, but has no phone number and they don't contact the public directly.  They gave me an email.

I sent an email to the address they directed me to.  Finally they got back to me saying the 'proof' I sent them that I was a teacher wasn't enough, although I submitted everything requested on their website.  They said they needed a pay stub.  I couldn't upload it through their website because the file was 'too large'. So I emailed it to them three seperate times.

I am quite web savvy and thus was very concerned about sending that private information through to who knows where.  But I did crossing my fingers I would get this product before the end of the school year.

And I waited...

Today (June 1 2009) I got a message saying that my order has 'run out'.  I'm welcome to open a new order.  This is insane.  There is no way Adobe is interested in working with the teachers of the US.  I suppose it must look good to have it on their webstie but in practice it's not something that happens.  Truly, I feel I have been scammed by them. AND someone out in cyberspace has my pay information.  This is NO way to run a company that says they cater and care about teachers.

There are lots of great companies that give great deals to teachers.  Borders, JoAnn come to mind.  Sometimes Michael's will honor the Teacher Discount cards, ometimes not, it depends on the person on 'duty'.  I'll find more, and please post any you find that actually work.

I could have spent the time finding and using a competing product that also creates .pdf files. 

Here are some alternatives to using the real .pdf creator, and these are free.  Please stay away from Adobe, and use these:

Search for Adobe Acrobat on eBay

PrimoPdf  free for .pdf maker, 99. for professional suite

PDF995  free trial, 9.99 single user, 19.95 .pdf suite, 29.99 Toolset Suite

What is a .pdf?  Here is the information:

Portable Document Format (PDF) is a file format created by Adobe Systems in 1993 for document exchange. PDF is used for representing two-dimensional documents in a manner independent of the application software, hardware, and operating system.^[

Each PDF file encapsulates a complete description of a fixed-layout 2D document (and, with Acrobat 3D, embedded 3D documents) that includes the text, fonts, images, and 2D vector graphics which compose the documents.

Formerly a proprietary format, PDF was officially released as an open standard on July 1, 2008, and published by the International Organization for Standardization as ISO 32000-1:2008.

Freebies for Teachers

Here are some sites that have been sent in to me that you can visit to get free materials for your classroom!  Keep them coming in!

LEGO Smart Kit

This is a monthly competition, complete and submit the LEGO Smart Creativity Contest entry form by 5pm on the last day of the month, January through August 2009. Multiple entries by eligible entrants are allowed.

The Federal Reserve Bank of New York makes available a variety of student booklets for elementary, high school and college students. The above link takes you to a list of free comic books.

Scholastic book deals

For many schools, June marks the end of the year.  Scholastic is having their “Dollar Days” now until January 31, 2009 (or while supplies last).  Be sure to check out the outstanding deals on hundreds of books!:

Their yearly warehouse book sales are now online as well as 'IRL' (In Real Life).  These are 'not open to the public' but ARE open to public, private and homeschooling families or as they say "he flier says, “Warehouse Sales are exclusive to Book Fair Chair people & Volunteers, Registered Homeschooling families, and School Personnel; Principals, Administrators, Faculty, Teachers, Librarians, and Media Specialists.”

These orders do need to ship to a school:

   

Good luck!  Great prices on books are a wonderful part of teaching.

100 hours of astronomy

From april 2nd to the 5th, people all over the world will be celebrating 100 hours of astronomy. the goal is to get as many people to look thru a telescope as possible! the dates correspond with the first quarter moon, which is my favorite object to view thru small telescopes, and saturn is up right now as well! many local astronomy societies will be holding events, most universities have some sort of telescope they use for public observing, or visit the official site to see what is being planned around your town!

There will be several events you can follow online if the weather doesnt cooperate with your evening sky gazing: around the world in 80 telescopes allows you to see tours by professional astronomers of some of the world's most advanced observatories!

Click here to view all the other online activities planned for both adults and children during the 100 hours of astronomy!

enjoy!

Printable Rulers

There have been so many times that I'm scrambling around to find a ruler to measure something in my office or apartment, and I'm completely sans ruler.

I discovered a couple years ago if you go to this link you can get an "actual size" printable ruler! Very handy if you don't feel like diggin' deep in the toolbox for the tape measurer or whatever.

I know I'm always misplacing tape measurers and rulers, so this is definitely a nice solution to keep in mind. 

Some printable paper rulers from vendian.org

Making Chess Sets Part One -- the game board

Happy Spring!

I've gotten a good many letters asking how to get inexpensive supplies to make chess sets.  Here are some ideas, feel free to add in your own!

Chess is an ancient game, you can read more about it here. 

This is the first in a three part series about Chess.  Today you'll read about many ways to create the game board.  Next up, the game pieces, and last some great ways to teach the whole class how to play.  This is a skill they will keep all their lives and can be worked into almost every state's Mathematics standards.  Learning to win and lose well are life lessons that go beyond Math Standards and your classroom.

Board Options.

Look around you.  You'll be surprised how simple or how fancy you can make chess boards and pieces.  I'll give you some ideas as a jumping off point, I'm sure you'll come up with a lot on your own!

Chipboard.  I was able to get 25 of these 'boards' for the students.  They were .53 each and with a class of 20, that was perfect! Paper Accents Chipboard 12x12 Extra Heavy Chip

Students can silkscreen, or simply paint, decoupage, or draw and color in the squares. I like to use one inch squares. You can see examples of boards here and here and here. Here is one way to draw a chess board if ou are familiar with Corel Draw.

Pizza Boxes-- ask a local pizza parlor to donate as many boxes as you need.  Paint, glue or decoupage the board on top.  This is nice because you can keep the pieces inside along with any guides you create for the students.

Canvas-- purchase "Duck Canvas" at a local fabric store, and cut into 12.5X2.5 squares for the students.  Again they can paint, silkscreen, draw the board.

Fabric - I found some great woven fabric just perfect for this craft. Look in your local fabric shop, this is some black and white check I found.  Do NOT get gingham, it has three colors. You can cut this to the correct size, then use decoupage medium on the chipboard or cardboard.

I used a combination of canvas and two fabrics to create these soft fabric boards. I used the canvas as interfacing to give it more weight.

You might be able to find "black and white racing checks" oilcloth.  That would be thicker and more friendly to this project for those not wanting to sew a class set of boards.

Cardboard - ask for donations of large cardboard boxes or old cereal boxes.  This is a great way to emphasize recycling. 

Tag or board.  If you can get large tag board, you might be able to make copies or take to a copy center

Manila folders Copy a board template, then have the students glue to the inside of a file folder.  Then can fold the board when not in use.  If you can laminate the board that might be good so long as the pieces have something on them, or weight so they don't slide around.

For further inspiration before the next installment, check out Make: